


My Friend: Whatever happened to Jules & Elim?

by Bluemeany



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Fiction, Gen, Subtext
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 09:14:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12296064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluemeany/pseuds/Bluemeany
Summary: Shortly after The Wire, two characters who communicate almost entirely in allusions and fiction search for a lost copy of Breakfast at Tiffany’s in order to get to lunchtime at Quark’s.Set in Bashir’s oddly minimalist quarters. Jules’s bear makes a cameo appearance.Partly an explanation of why super spy/mastermind Garak doesn’t uncover the truth about the doctor, despite them having lunch together for five years.





	My Friend: Whatever happened to Jules & Elim?

1\. INT. BASHIR'S QUARTERS

ENTER BASHIR and GARAK en route to lunch. Bashir moves across the living room and embarks on a disorganised search.

BASHIR:                       Two minutes, let me find it. It’s a classic.

Garak has been lent ‘classics’ before. He occupies himself studying the room. It’s neat, well ordered and surprisingly bare. There are a few journals on a shelf, a fake plastic plant in the corner… just enough personal effects to add a human touch.

BASHIR:                         _(still searching)_  Truman Capote is one of the great authors of human literature.

Garak is still observing his surroundings. No photos, no family mementos... _interesting_.

BASHIR:                         You'll love him. All his characters are pretending to be something they’re not. 

GARAK:                         Do you know, I’ve not had the chance to really _look_ at Starfleet officer quarters before. At least… not on this station.

Despite the fact he's searching a tidy room, Bashir can’t find what he’s looking for. He is now under the sofa.

BASHIR:                          _(muffled)_ And what’s the verdict?

GARAK:                         The Federation may have re-decorated but the architecture is unmistakably Cardassian.

Garak notes a part of the wall where the Starfleet-grey paint has started to peel. He scratches off a little more to reveal a bright flash of Cardassian colours underneath.

GARAK:                         Most interesting. _(beat)_ Do you ever wonder Doctor, who lived in this room before you arrived?

                                     What happened to them? Who they might have been?

Bashir re-emerges from under the sofa, increasingly frustrated.

BASHIR:                         Look around will you. It’s got a red cover. I know it’s in here somewhere...

The search moves into the bedroom. This too is oddly lacking in personal items, apart from-

Garak picks up a STUFFED BEAR from a shelf. He is _delighted_.

GARAK:                          You have a teddy bear!

BASHIR:                          _(embarrassed)_ What? Um. No! No. He’s not mine. Not really. He belongs … belonged to someone else. I inherited him.

GARAK:                          _(Not buying it)_ Really? From who?

Julian realises what he’s saying is true. This is Jules’s bear.

He knows he should shut up. Right now.

But there are so many people on the station. So many eyes watching. So many cameras and comm badges and lights. All the damn time. This is a chance to tell someone who he really is. He _needs_ to tell someone. Anyone.

BASHIR:                          A little boy who never grew up.

Garak reads the emotion and misunderstands the details. An accident or an illness… brother most likely. Or a cousin. A son even? Somehow the doctor looks older than before. It _could_ be... 

BASHIR:                          He was _( beat)_ my friend.

Garak isn’t going to get the truth: but Elim gets the message.

Another beat and Bashir is back to his enthusiastic-self again, cheerfully jumbling around the contents of the room in search of a lost book.  Garak regards the patched-together bear with professional interest.

GARAK:                           Is this your stitching? It’s rather good. A tailor notices these things.

BASHIR:                           Some of the stuffing comes out, now and then. It’s not easy to hold him together.

                                       My mother, she was all set to throw him out but I wouldn’t have it. Ah-ha! _(found it)_ Here it is.

Garak puts the bear back on the mostly empty shelf in the mostly empty room. Bashir hands him the book. It's red cover reads: “Breakfast At Tiffany’s & Other Stories” by Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood.

BASHIR:                           It was on the table. Right in front of me all along. Don’t know why I didn’t see it.

GARAK:                           No. Neither do I.

Bashir moves towards the door.

BASHIR:                           So… lunch at Quark’s?

Garak considers pressing for concrete details. He is the son of Enabran Tain, the man who can glean information even from an empty space. He _could_ get the truth.

But their regular table is waiting. And this is the doctor. Garak decides, for once, that’s all he needs to know.

GARAK:                          Why not? Lunch at Quark’s. And you can tell me some other stories.

Business as usual again. They move to EXIT together.

GARAK:                          You know Doctor, I wonder if they’re serving I’danian spice pudding today…

FADE OUT.

 

 


End file.
